ment of the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs "amounted not only to an attack on the Radicals who took part in the debate, but also to an attack on the Prime Minister."

On 1st January 1893, Sir Gerald Portal, the Imperial Commissioner, started from Zanzibar for Uganda. He made a new settlement of the territorial and other questions at issue between the Protestant and Roman Catholic parties, and a rising of the Mohammedan party was quelled. On his return Captain Macdonald was left to represent British authority, and by the close of the year Sir Gerald Portal's report was in the hands of the Government. Their action may be simplified by the fact that, owing to the death of the Sultan, our authority over Zanzibar has been strengthened, and that Witu on the mainland has been placed directly under the protection of the Crown. The report has yet to be dealt with, but meanwhile men of all parties unite in lamenting that through the premature death of Sir Gerald Portal the Crown has lost one of its most distinguished servants, and the report upon which the Government must proceed in deciding the fate of that great territory will be read with peculiar interest, bearing as it does the impress of a vanished

hand.

Matabele-land.-In Southern Africa a great menace to European colonisation and a standing scourge to the more peaceable native races has been removed. The growing civilisation of Mashona-land was threatened by the raids of the Matabele impis, and when the soldiers of a savage king raided our territory, and slaughtered Mashonas in the service of Europeans, it was clear that, as Dr. Jamieson, the administrator of Mashonaland, declared, "these acts make action imperative." The position taken up by the Government (August 1893) was that the responsibility for the maintenance of peace, law, and order in Mashona-land rested on the British South African Company, but that aggressive action by them would not be allowed without the previous sanction of the Government. The Company and Mr. Rhodes prepared for action; but the language of the Under Secretary, Mr. Buxton, who spoke of instituting crusades against the Matabele (September 6), and committed himself to the view "that the war-which would be a very serious onewould not take place" (September 9), was unfortunate, and out of sympathy with Colonial feeling in Africa. On 2nd October it was reported that the Matabele had fired upon the police, and Sir Henry Loch, the High Commissioner, being convinced that their intention was actively hostile, ordered Dr. Jamieson to take all steps necessary for protecting the interests, life, and liberty under his control. The troops of the Chartered Company entered Matabele-land in two columns from the east, formed a junction, and after fighting two actions, occupied

Buluwayo, where they were joined by the Bechuana-land Imperial force, which had also defeated the enemy. The close of the year saw Lobengula a fugitive, and large numbers of his subjects surrendering their arms and betaking themselves to peaceful pursuits. At home the usual spectacle was seen of Mr. Labouchere and a knot of Radicals retailing every cockand-bull story to the discredit of their own countrymen, denouncing those who had been living for months under the terrible menace of clouds of savage warriors, accustomed to devastation, and unsparing in their cruelty, as "filibusterers," and doing all they could to worry their own Government and irritate South African opinion.

The problem of the settlement of Matabele-land is a grave one. Events there and in Uganda have raised the large question of the general policy of governing by Chartered Companies. It is for the Government to frankly and generously recognise their services and the legitimate desires of those who live upon the spot, and, at the same time, to firmly and temperately assert the ultimate authority and controlling influence of the Imperial Government.

Swazi-land.-The action of the Government has not been satisfactory in regard to this part of Africa.

There may have been reasons for treating the independence of the Swazis as a counter in the large game of South African politics, but it is not consonant with high ideas of the obligations of this country, or with experience as to the best interests of the natives, that that country should be handed over by the great British Empire to the protectorate of the South African Republic. By the Swazi-land Convention of 1893, Her Majesty's Government agreed that the Transvaal Government might enter into negotiations with the Swazi Queen-Regent and Council, with a view to obtaining "rights and powers of jurisdiction, protection, and administration over Swazi-land."

The conditions attached to recognition of any such arrangement were, that the Swazi Queen and Council should understand its nature and terms; that just provision should be made for the protection of the Swazis in the management of their own internal affairs according to their own laws and customs; that British subjects there should continue to enjoy their rights as burghers of the South African Republic; that every white male resident in the country before 20th April 1893, should also be entitled to the political privileges of a Transvaal burgher; and that customs duties on imports were not to be higher than the Transvaal tariff or that of the South African Customs Union.

The attitude of the Opposition towards the Government in regard to foreign affairs has been one of patriotic forbearance

and generous support. This was acknowledged by Sir Edward Grey in a speech at Alnwick on 19th October 1893, who said:

"He was perfectly ready to admit that during the session just passed those on the Tory side who had spoken on foreign politics, either with knowledge or authority, had behaved towards the Government and its foreign policy in a way which was as creditable as that in which the Liberals behaved to them when they were in office. . . . He was sure the Government fully appreciated the consideration which had been shown them by those in authority in opposition."

It is satisfactory to find that the lesson of the mischiefs which followed the unrestrained faction of the Bulgarian Atrocities Agitation, and the violent reversal of the Conservative foreign policy in 1880, has been learned, and it is reassuring to trace in Egypt, in Afghanistan, and in South Africa, the difference between the results of a partisan handling of foreign affairs, and those secured by continuing a national policy on the same general lines.

Never was there more need for restraint and patriotism among public men. The recuperation of France, the extraordinary manifestation of it in the increase of her naval strength, the naval expansion of Russia, and the alliance of these two enormous, aggressive powers, so effusively exhibited at Cronstadt, Paris, and Toulon, are facts which this country cannot disregard. Do such activity and such an alliance mean nothing for us? Are these ironclads built and manned against the central Continental Powers, or for the natural protection of a limited commerce? Are they not a waste of money if intended to influence a contest to be waged with Germany and Austria on the Vistula and the Rhine? Is it of no significance that they belong to the two great Powers whose frontiers now press us on the east and west in Asia? Is it not a fact of supreme importance that while we, with a mercantile marine of £122,000,000, spend on our navy under £18,500,000; France, with a mercantile marine of £10,100,000, spends considerably more than £10,500,000; and Russia, with a mercantile marine of £3,000,000, spends on her navy more than £5,000,000? At Cairo our interests conflict with those of France; at Constantinople, Teheran, and Cabul, they are in acute opposition to those of Russia. Alike for Germany, wedged in between the two, and for Great Britain, dependent for the life of her masses on free and open trade-routes across the sea, with possessions open to attack in every quarter of the globe, and provided in Asia, in Africa-both West and North, as has been lately seen-and even in Newfoundland, with occa

sions for controversy with one or other of them, this strange alliance of democracy and despotism, of the great military powers of Eastern and Western Europe, possessing at the same time large empires in Asia and in Africa, constitutes the great peril of the closing years of the century. It has been the fortune of this country at the end of each century to be confronted with a struggle for existence. Three hundred years ago it vanquished the menacing power of Spain; two hundred years ago it faced the might of the old French monarchy; a century ago it entered on the long and victorious conflict with revolutionary and imperial France. If the nineteenth century is not to close without further establishing what appears to be a cycle in human affairs, the indications point pretty clearly to the quarters from which danger threatens. Never was a firm and cautious foreign policy more necessary; never have a strong navy and an efficient defence been more essential.

de naten might # mee omiare. hes frutjea, dne v telerez a vonat la 15syal pa na naroy of any foreign le vin michr exact viatever an pa was Vuose, ma tring statements n vev of e pida e's an ex ava i one and forces unt the tre doJÆLT Cow and forba domar m llar, denli fen an cuz eveź dóm on the Bund sf my home over eggin 1 Pay sónghiyo me, they spa en un to ong mat vis road with antip ba 3000 -ray Eugą przypes; they can protect our distant ppukamlp-3, windo wa un si naved was no formidable he can ning va qoymadim ng kase against them; and there is no ister to hate, aby and doar affectively with any forme of such bittebanalna ga je murtad misery to be able to elude our ships and Afloat & zilan randing apon ont shoTER. Bas the forces all told The tubek jaratıla kem so vasty inferior in numbers, in equipment, wu i bilamaation to the great armies of the continent, that of tree Bank wapk defeated and lost command of the sea, and * mein bike Vrance were able from a secure base to pour in have beenged at any point without limit, we have no forces in Buds Munday which could make headway against them. France comb sally land on our shores five trained men for every trained or partially trained man we possess, and ten batteries of hold artillery and ten squadrons of cavalry for every battery and every squadron we have at our disposal. Moreover, we love un sllectives land fortresses and no fortified arsenals where war material could be prepared in the presence of an invader. A war carried on under such conditions would be far more budiah and ruinous than was the war waged by Gambetta after this bottle of Rodan and the fall of Motz. Gambetta had the Fuat Boutiloations of Paris to detain the enemy whilst troops wore trained behind them, he had immense stores of guns and fillua in the southern provinces, he had the command of the eps and could buy munitions freely in foreign markets, and

plu & wat Buding France has an army of 2.800,000, with 3000 guns; ****m*, HF 4x with over too gums; Russia, of 4,000,000, with 3400